


Tales of Atlantis: The Artifact

by KD writes (KDHeart), xyzmary2001



Series: Tales of Atlantis [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Everybody Speaks English, Exploration, F/M, Gen, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, ancient ruins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-06-22 18:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19676665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDHeart/pseuds/KD%20writes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xyzmary2001/pseuds/xyzmary2001
Summary: "Usually, it works like this: we dial an address, the planet has been peacefully left alone for centuries, if not millennia. Then, we find out there's an artifact we might be interested in and we discover everyone is suddenly interested in it themselves – crazy local cults, Wraith, Wraith worshipers, Genii, you name it. Soon enough, we're running for our lives and we don't even get to keep the artifact."





	1. Chapter 1

The jumper was heading for the mainland on a rather unorthodox pattern of flight. One could even compare it to a drunken bat that had hit his head against the belfry one too many times and was now desperately trying to find the right way up before perching upside-down in the nearest barn. This was not entirely the case, but with Rodney driving, Catherine could only be grateful there were no belfries in sight.

She was hanging on for dear life, a paper bag clutched to her chest just in case. Another wild loop almost threw her out of her seat.

"I'm starting to think this wasn't such a good plan," she complained.

"We're good," said Rodney encouragingly. He finally got the jumper sort of stabilized, but it was incredibly difficult to keep it flying in a straight line even once you stopped looping. He hated to think of the trip back, let alone getting it parked back in the Jumper Bay.

After a few failed attempts at dating these past few days, Rodney concluded that the only place they could get some privacy was on the mainland. Until then, they had been interrupted first by a grinning Zelenka, then by an annoying Vala that insisted on giving them tips for "the magic night" – she seemed to have a knack for popping up at the precise moment to create the maximum amount of embarrassment – and by John a couple of times, for no apparent reason. This called for extreme measures – maybe this thing with Catherine wasn't going anywhere, but at least they were going to find that out without constant interruption or 'help'.

Thinking back on it, it might not have been such a good idea to take a jumper for this picnic.

Landing was another tricky matter. He managed to dodge a patch of trees before unceremoniously dropping to the ground like an oversized brick – good thing the jumpers were meant to resist attacks and, apparently, Rodney's driving skills, or he would have hell to deal with once they returned and had to account for every scratch and nick on the bodywork.

Catherine shakily got out of her chair. She had become accustomed to near death experiences since she came to Atlantis, but she definitely didn't intend on making a habit out of these weekend drives in the jumper, at least not with Rodney at the wheel. She found her feet just as unsteady as her boyfriend's flying and she didn't dare walk until she stopped shivering.

"See, we made it!" Rodney said with fake cheerfulness. He wasn't looking forward to the return flight. With all this excitement, he felt a bit hungry. "Can you get the food?"

Catherine looked around for the picnic basket that was no longer where they had placed it when they left. Come to think of it, it didn't look much like a picnic basket once she found it under the back of Rodney's chair. It had a distinct squashed quality about it. She gingerly lifted it and held it up in front of Rodney. "Was this what you meant?"

He looked mournfuly at the former basket. "At least the chocolate bars are intact, right?"

Catherine pried it open. The fruit they had taken with them had morphed into a paste and she could distinctly make out the opened food containers into which it had spilled. "Nope..." There was little regret in her voice, though, after their flight, she doubted her stomach would ever again accept the sight of food.

Rodney took the basket from her and looked inside himself. He scraped aside some of the fruit paste and managed to salvage a chocolate bar – a bit squashed, very sticky, but still in its wrapper – which he held up victorious. "Not all is lost!"

He was so pleased with his find, not even Catherine's murderous look could make him give it up. He stuffed the sticky chocolate bar in his pocket for later and tried to offer a compromise. "How about we go berry picking?"

Catherine, still shaking with shock, glared furiously at him. They had nearly crashed into the ocean on their way here, she had come this close to spending half the trip on the ceiling, their landing wasn't the smoothest, her stomach was tied in knots and her patience was reaching its limit and he wanted to go berry picking like they were in some sort of folk song!

"Where have you been for the past half hour?" she said, hiding her face behind tired hands.

"Relax! It was better than the last time I tried this. Have some chocolate, it will help your nerves," he offered, taking out the chocolate and unwrapping it. "It might be low blood sugar."

Catherine shook her head and slowly made her way to the door, still a bit unsteady, but determined she would do something she might regret if she stuck around any longer.

Rodney shrugged. More for him. Oblivious to her outburst, he bit into the chocolate bar and followed her out.

o0o0o

"Unscheduled off world activation," cried Chuck from his desk.

Elizabeth hurried out of her office with John on her heels. They had been discussing the issue of continuing their searches for the anti-Ori weapon once SG1 returned to Earth.

"Any IDC?"

"It's Maj. Lorne."

"Lower the shield!"

The major came through the gate. He was alone and ahead of schedule, however, he looked somehow victorious.

"What happened? Where's the rest of your team?" asked John, throwing a concerned look at the now inactive gate.

"We found the ruins intact, just like the Athosians told us and we decided to look around and make sure the perimeter was secure before reporting back. Smith got himself in a bit of a spot, though, but the guys are with him. The idiot found himself a nice little statue to make fun of and triggered a defense mechanism. He's trapped. We may need a doctor once we get him out, but he should be fine – it wasn't anything serious. The place is in pretty good condition. We might actually find the artifact still there," Lorne explained, still trying to catch his breath.

"I'll tell SG1 we may be on the right track this time. Col Sheppard, perhaps you can take your team and assist them," Elizabeth suggested.

"I was just thinking the same thing," John smiled. He was as curious about this mysterious artifact as anyone else.

Looking around, he noticed Rodney's absence. By now, he would have been fussing around, tablet in hand, collecting new data or something and telling everyone how they were supposed to do their jobs.

"Where's Rodney?"

"I gave him permission to take a jumper to the mainland," said Elizabeth. "I think he's getting a bit paranoid about his date with Catherine. He mentioned everyone being out to sabotage it..."

John rolled his eyes at the thought. Who would want to sabotage his date? Yes, he did walk in on them a couple of times, but he had some things to discuss with Catherine – it was unnerving how he never managed to get her alone.

"Major, you think you're up for flight to the mainland to pick up the two lovebirds? If they managed to land, that is. It would be cruel to let Rodney pilot his way back." And it would have been embarrassing if he went after them. Rodney was suspicious enough as it was.

Lorne, still a bit stiff and tired, nodded his agreement.

"Perfect. I'll go get everyone else."

o0o0o

After half an hour spent awkwardly searching for a neutral topic – one not related to tea, fan fics or John's ever-increasing harem – they had finally found a nice, grassy place to sit. Still a bit sore after their flight there, Catherine had asked Rodney something about the jumpers. It had been enough to spark him into a long and in-depth description of how exactly they worked and all the tricks one needed to know to fly them successfully. It was surprisingly relaxing to listen to him prattle on about one of his favorite subjects. It was also baffling how he could know so much about the craft, but be completely useless at flying them.

She sat like that, listening absently, for a while. She had to make their relationship work if she wanted to get over her obsession with John. If he had been in her thoughts before the tea incident, he became impossible to ignore after. The tension between them had grown until it was almost a living, breathing thing. Sexual. Downright scary. It brought her deepest fears to life and made staying away from him all the more necessary.

She needed someone who wouldn't leave her broken and, more importantly, someone who wouldn’t leave her behind.

She needed someone like Rodney. He let her decide the pace of their relationship, which gave her a feeling of comfort. Their interactions lacked that all-consuming intensity that frightened her. Best of all, his absorption in his work would leave _her free to focus_ on hers. She couldn’t fully dedicate herself to research when all she could think of was John. Hell, she could hardly think at all with him around.

Put that way, it felt like she was using Rodney. That didn’t sit right with her, but somehow, she managed to convince herself she could make up for it.

She tried hard to ignore the pang in her heart.

Completely oblivious to her state of mind, Rodney was currently explaining the structure of the main drive. It struck her that if she let him go on at this rate, they would probably be here all day, talking about starship engines.

Time to act like his girlfriend, if that was who she wanted to be.

She grabbed his hand and waited for him to stop.

He did. Abruptly.

He swallowed the last word and tried to hide his panic.

Not half as sure of herself as she let on, Catherine smiled brightly at him.

"We aren't getting anywhere like this."

Looking almost terrified, Rodney nodded.

"We're on a date…"

He nodded again.

"We're finally alone…"

She placed her free hand on his shoulder.

"And we've covered more mechanics than we need to at the moment."

Catherine leaned forward and pulled him to her, touching her lips to his.

“Will you,” she asked, gently biting his bottom lip, “kiss me back?”

o0o0o

His panic turned to bewilderment as he felt her soft lips moving slowly against his and he closed his eyes to enjoy their warmth.

To his surprise, despite being the one with the initiative again, Catherine was just as hesitant and shy at this as he was.

Slowly, he freed his hand from her grip and wrapped it around her waist, pulling her closer. With his other hand, he brushed away a strand of her hair that was threatening to come between them. His hand lingered on her cheek as he deepened the kiss into something more intense, yet still as innocent as it had started.

Catherine pulled back a little and smiled.

"See, it wasn't that hard," she teased.

He shook his head and pulled her into his arms again. This time, there was more passion behind the kiss and Catherine completely abandoned herself to his lead.

The rush of excitement was overwhelming. His heart beat faster, air didn't seem all that important, and his ears whirred with the sound of rushing blood.

All of a sudden, Rodney's brain decided it was time to stop enjoying the view and remind him that it wasn't the sound of blood rushing to his head but that of a landing jumper.

Reluctantly, he pulled away from her and glanced at the intruding ship. Catherine fell back onto the grass, covering her eyes with one arm.

"I hope it's not who I think it is," she mumbled, sounding annoyed.

The jumper finally landed, revealing the intruder to be Maj. Lorne. He wasn't alone; another officer came out after him and rushed toward the other jumper.

When he was close enough to hear them, Rodney stood up and greeted him with a sarcastic "John sent you, didn't he?"

Lorne nodded.

"We need you on a mission, Dr McKay. And since she's already with you, Dr Spencer can come along as well. We might need a medical doctor with us," he explained hurriedly.

o0o0o

Catherine, still lying in the grass, raised a hand for someone to help her up. When that someone turned out to be the one that had disturbed their date, she rolled her eyes and sat up on her own. She threw Rodney a quick, killer look, but it was too quick for him to catch it.

"Why would Col Sheppard ask you to come all the way here to get us?" Catherine asked dryly, heading for the jumper ahead of him.

Lorne hesitated for a second before filling them in on the events of the expedition – the temple was intact, the traps were working, some brains were not and one member of his expedition had gotten himself stuck.

The trip back was surprisingly shorter and straighter compared to the one from Atlantis. It took a lot of willpower not to joke about Rodney's flying skills.

The other officer followed close behind in the other jumper.

o0o0o

The gate on P3X 32Z turned out to be placed half-way up a rocky hillside, three miles down from the temple they were interested in.

Sheppard and Lorne were leading the way, their P-90s handy, followed by Daniel Jackson who was unsuccessfully avoiding Vala's attempts to grab his arm. Sam and Teal'c followed behind, immersed in a discussion about their odds to find the weapon there. Rodney was helping Catherine keep up – if possible, she was in worse shape than him. Miranda was caught between complaining about the rocky terrain and admiring the sight on her first off world mission, every now and then being dragged back to reality by Coburn who had to pull her along when she stopped to sightsee. Teyla and Ronon brought up the rear, watching out for signs of ambush – this place was a bit too quiet for their taste.

Catherine had learned from experience and hadn't protested when Maj. Coburn offered to carry her equipment. It might have had something to do with the person as well. All in all, she was doing her best to avoid looking in John’s general direction and hadn’t complained once since they’d hit the trail.

In turn, Rodney, despite being more experienced with the terrain, was constantly complaining about the climb. Wouldn't it have been so much simpler to take the jumper up to the temple and avoid all the climbing? They weren't exploring the place; they actually had a clear idea of where they were heading.

"How much further, Major?" Rodney eventually whined.

"About another mile."

"And we didn't take a jumper up there because..." Rodney left the complain unfinished.

"We didn't want to attract attention. From what we could ascertain, this area is uninhabited, but a jumper would be visible from far enough away to attract the locals," Lorne explained patiently.

“We could have cloaked it,” Rodney pointed out.

"Let me see if I get this straight. These ruins have stayed intact for the past ten thousand years and now that we dialed the address, everyone might jump on the chance to visit?" Catherine asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of her voice.

Teal'c stifled a laugh, to Sam's surprise.

"Isn't it how it usually works?" John joked.

"You tell me."

It was the first time she addressed him directly since they stepped through the Gate. Surprised, he turned and threw a quick look at her before replying.

"Usually, it works like this: we dial an address, the planet has been peacefully left alone for centuries, if not millennia. Then, we find out there's an artifact we might be interested in and we discover everyone is suddenly interested in it themselves – crazy local cults, Wraith, Wraith worshipers, Genii, you name it. Soon enough, we're running for our lives and we don't even get to keep the artifact," he explained, annoyed at how true his little joke turned out to be.

"And let's not forget the crazy women that always turn out to have an interest in our John, here," Rodney added.

“Do tell, Colonel!” Vala chirped, laughing and clapping with pleasure.

John stopped in his tracks. Why on Earth did they have to bring that up? His eyes darted over the group and paused briefly on Catherine. With her cheeks flushed and her hair as much out of the ponytail as in, she looked disheveled and utterly feminine. She was also trying so hard to avoid his gaze, he knew the last comment struck a nerve with her.

“What women, McKay?” he asked in a low, warning tone, hoping Rodney would take the hint and drop it.

He didn’t.

"You should start with Larrin," he offered. "Or was it the other one, that Ascended woman, what was her name?"

"Thanks for your input, Rodney," John snapped. "Are we there yet?" he tried changing the subject.

“Only another mile or so, sir,” Lorne answered, the smile obvious in his voice.

John was about to turn away when he finally caught her eyes. For a few heartbeats, something moved between them, something that was at once arousing and painful. With a sharp clarity the memories of the tea incident came flooding back, sending his heart racing. Great, he was back in high school!

“Let’s keep moving, kids,” he heard himself saying.

Vala moaned a protest and Catherine, thankfully, broke the eye contact and turned to Daniel Jackson.

He sucked in a deep breath and resumed climbing.

o0o0o

At the edge of the wood, they were met by a young officer baring bad news. Smith had triggered another defense mechanism trying to free himself and, despite their help, had caused a part of the ceiling to fall on top of him. Fortunately, no one else was trapped, but he was now crushed under a mound of rubble, stone and metal, squeezing the life out of him.

Catherine brushed her tiredness aside and ran to the temple, Coburn following close behind with her kit.

They found her still by his side, cradling his head.

“I’m cold,” the private was saying in a low, shaky voice. His eyes were losing focus and it soon became obvious he wouldn’t survive. A quick look at Lorne convinced him the Maj. knew that as well.

“I know,” Catherine said, taking his hand in hers. “What’s your name, Private?”

“Smith, Ma’am,” he answered, his gaze locked on her face with a mixture of hope and terror.

“Where are you from?”

“Dallas. I... My family had a small farm there.”

“And how was it? Growing up in a farm?”

As he talked, Smith seemed to relax and a peaceful smile replaced his grimace of terror. He died a few minutes later.

“It was all I could do,” Catherine muttered, staring at his body.

“You gave him some peace at end,” Lorne said. “It means more than you think.”

Catherine looked up. Her eyes were cloudy with tears.

“I’ve been six months in Afghanistan and ten more in the SGC, Major,” she said, bitterly. “I know what it means, and it’s just not enough. It doesn’t even matter how many you save. It’s always the ones you lose that stay with you forever.”

She lifted Smith’s head from her lap, and sprung to her feet.

“Maybe if we had a jumper?” John asked.

“No, the internal bleeding was too severe. He wouldn’t have made it back to Atlantis,” she assured him.

John knew exactly what she was doing and felt grateful for it. The horrid thought that Smith would still be alive if he hadn’t refused to take the jumper nagged at him.

Smith’s teammates were gathered around, looking slightly confused. Losing a team member is never easy, especially under such preventable circumstances. But there was something more about the look in their eyes. He couldn’t place it, but it unnerved him. Maybe it was his own guilt at not ever noticing the man until he was dead. Aside from their small group, no one seemed to be affected by the loss.

Rodney was taking readings, but that was just his nature – he probably hadn’t even heard of the man before this very day, of course he was unaffected. The SG1 team had wandered away, absorbed in their exploration of the ruins.

Even Catherine had wandered a few steps away and was sitting on a boulder, drinking water. She seemed less frantic than a few moments ago.

These were all normal reactions, he reminded himself. He couldn’t let his guilt eat away at him and project on those around him.

“Tell your men to take him back to Atlantis and secure the Gate,” he instructed Lorne. Then he walked over to Catherine.

“You could return to Atlantis with them,” he said.

“Thanks, but I’d rather stick around,” she answered. “My mother was an archeologist and I share her passion for ruins. Besides, with all these booby traps, you might need me again later.”

Glancing at the Ancient building behind them, John had to agree. It certainly looked like an archeologist's dream come true.

“I certainly hope not, but sure, you can stay. It looks peaceful enough for a bit of exploring.”

“Yeah. It does,” she agreed. “No crazy cults and Wraith worshippers, then?”

John searched her face for any trace of sarcasm and found none. He couldn’t tell if she was baiting him or asking a sincere question.

He scratched his head, trying to figure out what to say and why it seemed so important.

“Listen, about earlier-” he started, still unsure of which direction his brain was trying to go in. Before he could puzzle it out, Catherine closed the distance between them and patted him on the shoulder.

“Your private life is no one else’s business, John. That includes me.”

He looked at her questioningly, but her expression was carefully guarded and blank, as if to keep him from noticing something.

“Right.”

“I’ll go check on Rodney,” she said.

Before John could tell her anything else, she had already turned around and went after Rodney.

She was right, of course. What did he expect her to say? She had voiced exactly what he’d been thinking just moments earlier.

How was it possible, then, that he still felt he owed her an explanation?

He sighed and went off ahead.

o0o0o

The temple showed clear signs of Lantian architecture, but generations of worshipers had added two smaller towers to the initial structure, in different styles and states of degradation. Most of the construction was covered in vines and moss, with small hints of the white stone beneath. The windows had long been replaced by curtains of vines and the steps to the main entrance were worn by the feet of generations of visitors and by the elements.

Daniel was in Seventh Heaven. He had found some inscriptions to examine with no treasure in sight so he could actually get some work done without Vala peering over his shoulder all the time. He was thoroughly confused by the first version of his translation ( _Welcome be those burdened by their wives_ ) and he enjoyed every moment of it.

Ronon was the only one that looked the least bit impressed. "Why exactly did we come here?" he asked, giving the place a bored once-over.

"Charin said there are legends of a powerful weapon hidden in this temple. It is rumored to have been entrusted to the monks by the Ancestors before they departed," Teyla explained patiently.

"At least they are enjoying themselves," he observed, talking about Rodney who was looking more and more excited with every new result of his scans on the one hand, and Daniel and Miranda who were staring at the inscriptions with frightening glee in their eyes. "I'll never understand them," he said.

As if to confirm his claim, Rodney began jumping around, too happy by half.

"These readings are amazing! If I'm right – and I usually am – there might be a ZPM around here. Nothing else could emit such levels of energy. Not in this end of the Galaxy!" he said, almost embracing Catherine in his enthusiasm.

"Do you think this might be what Charin was talking about?" John asked Teyla.

Teyla shook her head. "I can't be certain, but it might be the power source for the weapon."

"We'll find out when we find it," Sam said, suddenly very interested in Rodney's readings. She suggested a more in-depth scan and, soon enough, they had switched to such high levels of technobable that Catherine decided it was easier to tune them out.

o0o0o

Still staring at the inscriptions, Daniel and Miranda's paths finally crossed.

"Are you sure that's supposed to read _wives_?" she asked, trying to make better sense of the inscription. "Wouldn't _lives_ work better?"

Daniel shook his head. "I'm pretty sure it's _wives_. Either that, or _bags_ , but that makes even less sense." He pointed out a complicated character. "This might be a typo. In which case it might be _hippos._ "

Miranda bit back a giggle. It felt nice being able to act normally around him again.

"You seem to be having fun," chimed Vala, clinging to Daniel's shoulder.

"Vala, I'm trying to work here. Don't you have anything else to do? Nothing shiny to get your attention yet?" Daniel complained.

"Actually, there is," she said, letting go of him and pointing to a character in the inscription. "Treasure!"

"You can read this?" he asked, taken aback.

"Not really. I'm just very good at what interests me."

Miranda skipped ahead to get to the part Vala had pointed out "Something, something, _trial_ , something, something, _those worthy,_ something, _the heart of this temple, treasure,"_ she read.

" _...hidden in the heart... "_ read Daniel. He was pleasantly surprised with the girl's grasp of the language.

"What are we waiting for? We're here, treasure!" Vala cheered, pushing the two toward the entrance.


	2. Chapter 2

John spotted them heading into the temple and ran after them.

"Where are you running to, kids?"

Daniel spared John a questioning look. Last he checked, he was five years older.

"You know what I mean," John said. "Lorne, you said your guys managed to explore a bit of this place before..." he said, stepping in front of the three and blocking their advance.

"It should be OK as long as you don't touch anything," Lorne answered, catching up with John.

"You heard the man. You walk in after us and don't touch anything!" John warned, the last part being directed specifically at Vala, who was known for her sticky fingers.

"Come on, guys!" he called to everyone else. "We're going exploring!"

The main hall was impressive. Tall marble columns dotted the hall, while the walls were still covered in the tattered remains of a more recently added tapestry, depicting scenes of monastic life. From there, they wandered into a corridor littered with the remains of statues and praying urns. There were various rooms merging out from this corridor, but they all showed signs of later additions to the original architecture.

Aside from Rodney, Miranda, Catherine, Daniel, and Vala, everyone was on their guard. Catherine was keeping close to Rodney, though she could hardly keep up with his explanations of how the signal varied depending on what room they passed. Miranda was eagerly taking in every aspect of the temple, awed that it had remained so well-preserved centuries after it had been deserted. Daniel was doing his best to tune out Vala's chatter so he could concentrate on the architecture and artifacts around them.

o0o0o

Rodney stopped dead in his tracks and nearly got knocked over by Vala, whose attention was focused on Daniel rather than where she was going.

She smiled in apology, which left him looking for his words for a second. This earned her one of Catherine's killer looks, but it went by unnoticed.

"The readings are getting higher this way," he said, pointing around to one of the branching chambers.

Miranda peered around to see what the excitement was about. Through the open archway, the room looked small, maybe one of the monks' cells. Stepping through the archway, you were forced to change your perspective – the bit you saw through the passage was merely the antechamber to a much larger hall which seemed to continue parallel to the main corridor. It gave off the feeling of walking into a cathedral – tall, vaulted arches sustained the high roof but the somber air of a cathedral was softened by numerous paintings that had been added later – some in a very good state of preservation. The hall was dominated by an altar placed half-way between its two ends.

They all walked in after Mida and Rodney, quickly adjusting to the shift in perspective.

"What have you found?" John asked, glancing over at McKay's scanner.

Taking advantage of the general interest being focused on the hall rather than on her person, Vala snuck by to get a closer look at the idol on the altar that had escaped everyone else's notice. It wasn't surprising; she did have her eye trained to notice things of value.

A few steps before reaching the altar, Vala stopped. She looked back to the end of the hall she had come from, then back toward the altar. It didn't look right. Not the altar, she could see that perfectly, as well as the little, golden statue on it. The rest of the hall, however, looked out of sync somehow. She looked at the walls and the columns and there it was, a little hiccup in their regularity. That made everything click into place.

"Daniel!" she cried turning back toward the others, waving him over. "You _have_ to see this!"

"What are you doing there?" John snapped but, before he could go after her, Daniel and Miranda snuck around him, with no thought to safety.

"Is it just me, or did that tea have lasting effects on some people?" he asked watching the younger archaeologist rushing after Daniel. "Guys, get back!"

He started after them, but Vala was already picking up the statue.

"Put it back!" Daniel cried, still too far to do anything about it.

Pouting, Vala placed it back. "I was just curious!"

At about the same moment, Rodney looked at his scanner in sudden alarm. "The energy readings just spiked-"

"Damn it!" cried John, hitting a force field that had suddenly materialized, cutting him away from the other three.

Daniel walked back to the forcefield and reached for it. It got zapped.

"Didn't you put it back?" he turned with an accusing look to Vala.

She shrugged, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I guess we're stuck here. We should make the best of it."

"Rodney!"

"I know, this is where someone gets stuck and I have to work out a way of getting them out. Give me a sec," he said, already looking for the source of the force field.

"I guess we should go look for another way in," John suggested.

"If you don't mind, I'll stay here with Rodney," Sam offered, typing something on her own tablet.

"You will?" asked Rodney almost ecstatic and without noticing Catherine's frown.

"Just don't get your hopes up about anything else."

Catherine, after a short moment's thought, walked over to John.

"If you don’t mind, I’ll be coming with you. I’m out of my depth here and I still wanna see more of this place,” she said, her voice perfectly calm, with the slightest hint of challenge in it. “Besides, God knows what you might get yourselves into.”

When their eyes met, there was definitely a challenge there, banked with no small measure of heat.

“Sure, suit yourself. Just... stay close in case we’re not alone,” he nodded, holding her gaze with a playful smile.

"And I shall secure the entrance," offered Teal'c, breaking the sudden silence.

o0o0o

They left Rodney with the SG1 team and continued down the corridor, searching for another way into the hall. It was a surprisingly silent walk without Vala's constant chatter and Rodney's lectures.

Aside from their echoing footsteps, the corridor was completely deserted and it seemed to stretch on forever, getting darker and darker as they progressed. After what seemed like forever, a musty, damp smell hit their nostrils and John signaled them to stop. He raised the flashlight and swept it slowly around, his finger tightening around his P90 trigger. Sure enough, the corridor turned suddenly into descending stairs.

Lorne approached and shone his own flash light down the stairs, with no end in sight. John searched his pockets for something he could throw into the hole – he found a nickel. Hushing the others, he flipped the coin and threw it down the stairs. It rang against the stone steps, clattering on for about five seconds before settling on the unseen floor.

"I guess this needs looking into. Catherine, you come with me and Lorne. Coburn, you take Teyla and Ronon with you and keep searching for an alternate way in."

"Yes, sir!" Coburn answered, a bit too solemnly.

John's eyes moved from the Major to Catherine and then to the hole.

"Don't you dare say _Ladies first!_ " Catherine warned him, something in her voice telling him she was daring him to do just that.

John had no doubt she was crazy enough to accept the challenge and for a moment felt tempted to humor her. A quick smile flashed across his face at the prospect, but he didn’t raise to the bait. She was enough trouble without him putting her in danger just for the sake of it. "I wasn't going to, until you mentioned it. I should be a little more chivalrous," John grinned and started to climb down the stairs, his P-90 in hand, before Catherine could protest again.

o0o0o

"I said I was sorry," Vala insisted.

"Do you never think before doing something?"

She wanted to say she did it to see if she'd get him to frown like that, but she didn't dare attract more of Daniel's annoyance after getting them stuck in that room.

From the other side of the force field, Sam was trying to sound encouraging. "Don't worry, Daniel. We'll get you out."

"As soon as we realize where the hell this sprung out from," Rodney muttered, examining the wall.

Trying to ignore the staring contest Dr Jackson and Vala had started, Miranda had stumbled onto the same revelation as Vala. She walked around the altar for a better look and, indeed, the columns were no longer in perfect alignment. Though it still looked as three dimensional as it had from the other end of the hall, up close you could tell, if you paid enough attention, that the other half was a very life-like painting. It was a feat that would have driven to tears the masters of the Baroque and it was surprisingly well preserved.

"Don't go too far," cried Rodney "If you trigger another of these fields we might never get to you."

In place of an answer, the young woman knocked on the fresco. "There's nowhere further to go."

Dropping his argument with Vala, Daniel took into account this new turn of events. As his eyes adjusted to the flatness of the surface, he was amazed he had missed it before. It must have been there for thousands of years, yet it looked as perfect and well preserved as if not only had the monks refreshed it throughout their stay, but the practice had been kept up even after their departure.

It was stunning, but it helped them little in getting out of there.

o0o0o

John's flashlight swiped the chamber – it was another corridor, just as deserted as the ones above. The stones were much more worn and less decorated than the ones above ground. The beam of his flashlight caught a glimmer on the floor. It was his coin. He knelt to pick it up. It would have been a shame to lose it – it was the coin he had tossed when deciding if he should come to Atlantis. As he pocketed it, Lorne's flashlight shone on his face.

"Anything interesting?"

"It looks interesting enough for me. Interesting with more than a touch of creepy, but still worth exploring,” Catherine said, coming down the stairs after them.

“Well..." John said, swiping the corridor with the beam of his flashlight again, "There seem to be a lot of doors."

"The more the merrier,” Catherine grinned, looking slightly annoyed when they didn’t exactly share her enthusiasm. “C’mon, boys! We’re alone in an _Ancient_ temple! What can be more exciting?” she insisted.

“If you say so. It only looks old and creepy to me,” John said, shining his light into the first room. It wasn't larger than 12 square feet, bare of any decoration – a little more than an artificial stone cave.

"This was probably where the monks lived," said Lorne after studying another room, just as unimpressive as the first.

After inspecting a few more similar cells, they found themselves in a slightly more impressive room.

"This must have been where the big guy lived," John commented.

Lorne's beam fell onto a figure huddled on the floor. "Then that must be him, there," he added, walking toward the body.

With surprising speed, Catherine headed straight for the body, reaching it before John could.

"Can you get me some more light, here?" she demanded, the excitement in her voice making him smile in spite of his doubts.

He shrugged towards Lorne – who on Earth (or any other planet!) could understand doctors! - and they shone their lights over her and the dead monk.

The flesh had long gone from its bones and the garments were scorched. With a sure hand, Catherine lifted one of the bony arms for a closer examination and was rewarded with a cloud of dust lifting off the remains.

"He's been killed quite recently," she said, her mouth covered by her free hand against the dust.

John looked suspiciously out into the corridor behind him. "Define _recently."_

"I can't be sure, but it has to be about 50 or 60 years…" she answered.

John relaxed somewhat. "You call that _recent_?"

"The place was supposed to have been deserted for hundreds of years..." Lorne commented.

"I can venture a wild guess and suggest he was tortured, as well…" Catherine continued, letting go of the hand and causing a new cloud of dust to lift.

"What makes you think that?" John asked, walking toward her for a closer look.

"His hands and feet were burnt to the bone, but that's not what killed him," she explained.

"What was it, then?" John insisted.

" Well, I'd make a wild guess and say it was this huge hole in his head that eventually did him in." She sounded like a teacher having to explain something painfully obvious to a class that never paid attention, a bit like McKay.

"If we're done playing CSI: Atlantis, we can go on looking for whatever it is we're supposed to find here… sir," Lorne interrupted.

John was just coming up with a sharp retort when the silence in the corridor was disturbed by new footfalls.

"I thought I told you to inspect the ground floor," John cried, thinking the others had decided to join them on the fun.

The answer came in the form of a projectile whistling past his ear and embedding itself in the wall.

Instinctively, John grabbed Catherine and pushed her into the wall, out of their unseen aggressors' sights. With her out of the way, both he and Lorne opened defensive fire.

"We're peaceful explorers!" John cried, though he doubted the guys shooting back at them cared much about it.

He couldn't be entirely sure if they got any of them. The bastards were good – in the feeble light of their torches, they had almost shot him and, despite being out-armed, had not backed out of the crossfire.

He looked back to make sure Catherine was out of harm’s way and found her still pressed against the wall, surprisingly quiet and compliant. He hoped none of the projectiles would ricochet her way.

"What the hell are they firing with?" Lorne asked in a moment of respite.

"Looks like arrows," John answered, touching the one that had embedded itself in the wall after grazing his ear.

"You were talking about _crazed villagers?_ " Lorne asked.

"I wouldn't go that far," said John. "We're probably just in the _grave robbers and other old associates of Vala's_ phase."

"Doesn't matter what ingredient of the perfect off-world mission they are. They seem to have stopped firing," Catherine pointed out, sounding more annoyed than scared.

"Could be reloading," suggested Lorne.

"Are you willing to talk now?" John called into the dark.

There was no answer. Not even another arrow shot in his general direction.

"Should we go out?" John asked.

"Could be an ambush," Lorne argued.

"Or we could wait for them to finish us here," John countered.

"Point made," Lorne conceded.

"Catherine," he called. "Get your gun ready. We don't know what might be waiting out there."

Catherine pulled out her pistol reluctantly, looking at it as if for the first time.

"You do know how to use that, right?"

"Of course I do!" she answered indignantly, arming it.

"Good. Don't come out until one of us gives you the all clear," John instructed her.

After a moment of hesitation, Catherine nodded in agreement and he walked out, followed closely by Lorne.

Except for three fallen assailants, the corridor looked indeed empty. So did the cells next to the larger room they had just left.

"Looks clear," Lorne called.

o0o0o

It wasn’t the first time she found herself in a dangerous situation, but some things never get better with practice. Take shooting, for example. Despite being a decent shot, she hated guns and did her best to avoid them whenever she could. It might have had something to do with her Hippocratic oath.

Heart racing in her chest, Catherine unglued herself from the wall and hurried to catch up with them.

The noise behind her was so faint that she would have easily missed it under normal circumstances. Instead, she reached for the gun and turned around. In the faint light reflecting off the walls, she could see one of the bodies staggering to its feet and preparing its weapon. For a brief moment, time stood still as she took aim. Every instinct commanded her to pull the trigger and she struggled to do it, panic filling her heart as she realized she didn’t have it in her.

“John?” she managed to squeak.

Hearing his name, John turned and, instantly recognizing the danger, pushed her out of the way and fired in the man's direction.

The sound of his P-90 hitting the floor seemed deafening in the silence that followed.

o0o0o

Daniel was examining the statue, careful not to touch it. It represented what looked like and old monk, maybe even some sort of magician, with a medallion around his neck. It might have even been the pendant they were searching for.

Vala, as restless as ever, reached for the little statue, wanting to get a better look.

Daniel snatched her hand mid movement.

"What did I tell you about touching things?" he warned.

"Don't?" she asked innocently. "But I only wanted to get a better look at it," she pleaded.

"Look at what happened the last time you touched it!" he said, pointing to the force field.

"Precisely. What else could happen?"

He gave her a warning look. It was a terrible habit of hers to tempt fate like that, but she did have a point. Still skeptical and a bit worried of the consequences, he grabbed the statue off the altar.

Nothing happened.

Vala smirked contently. "I told you so," she said, never above such childishness.

"When it said _those burdened by their wives_ , was it talking about the people coming to join the convent?" Miranda asked all of a sudden. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against the altar and listening to the two bickering. The thought of these two together was becoming more and more appealing to her and it amused her greatly how she was moving out of fangirl territory into shipper mood.

"If I have to spend any more time stuck with her in a confined space, I might end up considering very seriously the possibility of joining a convent!" Daniel threatened the still grinning Vala.

It seemed to work.

"You don't mean it," Vala whined. "Although, I've always had a thing for guys in monastic robes…" she added wistfully.

"There's no shaking you, is there?"

o0o0o

After careful examination, the walls proved to posses no hidden panels or keys to the force field. It wasn't meant to keep things in, but to keep people out – the only way of lowering it seemed to be from the inside. Both Sam and Rodney agreed on this. What they couldn't agree on was what the energy readings had to do with it.

"The source has to be behind the shield," she insisted.

"Even if it was powering the field, I shouldn't be getting such strong readings off it. It has to be closer. Maybe it's in this very room," Rodney insisted.

"You're not going to suggest it might be in the walls! There's nowhere to hide it in here!"

"Haven’t you seen any movies? The character leans nonchalantly against a wall and it gives way to the entrance into a secret passage…" he said, leaning nonchalantly against the wall.

Nothing happened.

Sam watched him with a raised eyebrow.

"It was worth a try," he shrugged.

"This sort of things only work for Daniel," Sam joked.

o0o0o

Their brief respite was just as quickly shattered by a new volley of arrows.

“Kill the lights!” John ordered, turning his own flashlight off. “They got me!” he hissed.

Lorne followed suit, leaving them in utter darkness. He kept shooting in the general direction of their attackers, the chance of hitting anything mutually reduced.

Too slow to be of any actual use, Catherine came out of her stupor and dropped her gun. She hurried to John’s side, groping frantically for him. She could barely make out his shape and couldn’t see how bad he was injured, or even where.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Her questing fingers suddenly came upon the metal shaft sticking out of what was probably John’s shoulder, eliciting a strangled groan.

“Sorry! Sorry!”

She forced herself to slow down, despite her growing panic, to get a better idea of the situation and let the professional side of her brain take over. There wasn’t enough blood for a major vessel to have been hit and it was in the right shoulder, narrowly missing the bone. Her hands were wet with blood and she was shaking, but as long as she got his bleeding under control, he was safe enough.

"I’m so sorry I froze like that," she whispered, pressing on the wound with one hand.

"I thought you said you knew how to use that thing!" John hissed, leaning against a wall.

"On the firing range, yes," she answered awkwardly. "I never had to use it on living targets before."

"Great!" he hissed again.

She cursed her lack of forethought. Where was her first aid kit when they needed it?! She made a mental note to keep a smaller kit of essentials always on her. As it was, she had nothing to stop his bleeding with short of taking off her shirt, which was hard to do with one hand while under fire.

She grabbed his left hand and guided it to the bolt.

“Keep pressure!” she instructed.

She fumbled the hem of her shirt out of her trousers and pulled, trying to break a seam. It was annoyingly sturdy.

“What are you doing?” John asked.

She was so grateful he couldn’t see her blushing in the dark.

“I’m trying to improvise a bandage. Hush now!” She came off a little abrupt, but this wasn’t the time to be chatty.

She tried tearing into the fabric with her teeth, but it took a couple of attempts before it finally started to come apart. She managed to tear a strip and fumbled for his shoulder again.

Her hand brushed his and she clasped her fingers on it.

“Please hold still! I need to secure the bolt,” she instructed and carefully moved his hand away.

She hoped the strip of fabric was enough to staunch the bleeding and keep the bolt in place until they got to Coburn and her first aid kit.

Another arrow hit the wall between them, inches away from either of their faces. Too close for comfort.

All of a sudden, he pulled her toward the wall with his left hand, almost causing her to lose balance. It took her a second to understand he had just placed himself between her and their attackers. She was furious! She wasn’t even done making sure his blood stayed on the inside and he was already getting himself in harm’s way. Bloody hero complex!

“Can’t you just sit still?” she hissed.

“Is getting shot going to help you patch me up quicker?” he retorted.

“No, but you not getting shot again might!” she snapped.

She didn’t have enough fabric to tie the bandage up properly, but she had done all she could under the circumstances.

She unceremoniously grabbed his left hand again and placed it over the makeshift bandage.

“Here, press this and don’t jolt the bolt!” she instructed, her voice a bit colder than she intended.

“Thanks, Doc,” he said, then turned his head towards the entrance.

"Hey!" he cried, loud enough to make himself heard over the noise from Lorne's gun. "I said we're peaceful explorers!"

"Maybe they don't speak English," suggested Lorne after another bolt whizzed by his head.

"Nonsense, everyone speaks English in this galaxy!" muttered John.

"Are you OK back there?" Lorne asked, concern obvious in his voice.

"Fine. Just taking five," John joked.

Catherine didn't even pretend to be fooled by his forced cheerfulness. Her hands were still sticky with his blood. She needed to get him out of there to somewhere she could take a better look at his wound.

"Shouldn't we take cover in one of the cells?" she suggested, trying to grab his waist so she could support him. She hoped it would be safer to turn her flashlight on if they were out of firing range.

"I wasn't shot in the leg. I can walk on my own!" John protested, but didn't push her away and let her guide him to the cell.

"Go already!" Lorne urged them. “I’ll cover you!”

Her grip on him, however, was not the steadiest. She was also a head shorter than John and not very focused on what she was doing with him so close and arrows ricocheting around. It only took one left foot placed too close to the right to get both of them crashing to the floor in a heap. This development lead Catherine to three revelations – that you should never back into a dark room out of a dark corridor with a heavy burden, that a stone floor was indeed as hard as it seemed and that John Sheppard was a lot heavier than he looked.

For a second, she couldn’t even move, too stunned by the fall. She could feel her brain bouncing against the back of her skull. Even more worrying, John wasn’t trying to get off her. The sudden worry that the fall had jolted the bolt deeper into his shoulder washed over her like ice.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

The sound of stunners cut off any more questions and any potential answer.

Suddenly, there was light.

"Are we interrupting something?"

She looked up and, once her eyes adjusted to the glare of the flashlight, she recognized Ronon. He was grinning and looked quite at ease, so it was safe to assume their attackers had been neutralized.

On top of her, John looked dazed and pale, but he hadn’t lost consciousness, like she had feared.

"Not much," he answered casually. "The doctor here was going to patch me up."

John's smile faded into a wince as Ronon helped him up.

"So you decided to squish her?" Teyla asked, offering Catherine a hand up. “We should get you out of here,” she said, still steadying her. “Your med kit is upstairs.”

"Thanks."

Catherine barely speared Teyla a glance before turning her attention back to John. She needed to get him to the surface before she could even consider pulling the bolt out. Even if the wound was clean, she had no way of knowing if the arrow had been poisoned unless she did some tests in the lab or John started showing signs of … well, anything. Who could tell what dirty tricks grave diggers were up to around here?

"Come on, I'll help you up," she offered and wrapped her arm around his middle once more.

o0o0o

Teyla watched them curiously.

"Can I help?" she offered.

“I can handle it," Dr Spencer brushed her off a bit too abruptly.

They were both stubborn and they made an interesting spectacle to watch as they climbed the stairs, each trying to sustain the other's weight.

Teyla raised an eyebrow, but she knew Sheppard too well to comment on it during a crisis. She filed it away as something she could tease him with after they got back.

"This one's dead, too," concluded Coburn after checking another of the fallen attackers.

One of the bodies, however, still had a pulse. The man stirred and saw his fallen companions. With surprising ease for someone that had been shot multiple times, he stood up, sweeping the dimly lit corridor with a mad gaze.

"You have no idea what you have done," he warned. "They are coming and you shall be the ones they come after!"

"Who's coming for us?" Lorne asked, his gun aimed at the mad man.

"You know them by now. The Wraith are coming to feed!" there was a sing-song quality to his words that made them sound even chillier.

Before anyone could reach him, he plunged a knife into his stomach.

"They're almost here!" he grinned and, as he died, the grin turned into a ghastly grimace.

Throughout this, no one had dared move. It was as if a spell had been cast and it had only been broken with the man's death. Now that the world resumed its normal pace, they could see a metal band on the man's wrist and it was emitting some sort of signal. There was no need for someone to tell them what it was – the signal was going out to the Wraith and they were too late to stop it.

"Teal'c," called John, still frozen in place on the stairs. "We're expecting company."

o0o0o

"Daniel, there's nothing on our side. See if you can shut it down from your side," Sam suggested.

"We've looked – there's just the altar and the statue. They do nothing."

"I still say we haven't looked at all the options," insisted Rodney, scanning the walls and not intending to let Samantha have the last word.

Daniel looked again at the walls. They were beautifully ornate, but there was nothing akin to a switch of any kind or other sort of commands. Of course, after the revelation with the fake half of the hall, they had checked for other such illusions without success.

Vala, in turn, was playing with the statue. It was the only thing they had touched in the room, but she still couldn't get it to do anything regardless how many times she turned it, twisted it or pushed it in place.

"Samantha Carter, have you figured out a way of getting Daniel Jackson and the others out yet?" Teal'c's voice called through the radio.

She detached the radio from her belt and answered. "Not yet. Is anything wrong?" she asked worriedly. Teal'c wasn't very talkative and wouldn't have called unless it was important.

"We have reason to believe the Wraith are on their way here," he answered.

"What reason?" Rodney jumped.

"John Sheppard seems to have run into a Wraith worshiper."

"Where did he spring from?" Rodney said, rolling his eyes.

"He did not say."

"Very helpful," Rodney commented dryly.

"Never mind that," Sam brushed him aside. "I'm on my way, Teal'c," she said, hurrying out.

Rodney looked frantically after her.

"What about them?" he asked, pointing at the force field.

"We can't get them out from this side," she insisted, "and they're probably safer behind the force field than outside."

"Right," said Rodney, suddenly finding the idea of being stuck behind a force field surprisingly attractive. "You heard what she said, it's safer in there…" he said, worrying his hands and hesitantly following Sam. "I should probably..." He was absently pointing at the door, but he would have rather been anywhere else.

"Sure, go..." said Daniel, just as absently. One of the paintings finally caught his attention.

It looked like a map – a map of the temple, in fact.


	3. Chapter 3

At first, John wanted to protest again. After all, he _could_ walk, and if anybody needed support, it was her – she still looked as if she was stuck in a spinning room. With his arm around her shoulders, however, he found it easier to steady her and, under the guise of being helped, he helped her up the stairs.

Teyla guided them in a larger, well-lit room before leaving with Coburn to find out where their attackers came from. At his request, Lorne and Ronon were to stand watch while Catherine tended to his wound.

She barely had time to help him sit down before Lorne’s radio came to life.

"Major, we have gate activity! It’s the Wraith, sir!"

“How many?” Lorne asked.

There were at least five darts, more than the handful of men he had sent to the gate could handle on their own. However, they had brought one down without raising the Wraith's attention – they seemed determined to reach the temple without messing about with distractions.

John pushed Catherine away and tried to sit up but was held back by a small yet surprisingly firm hand.

"You're not going anywhere!"

He turned to her to protest but saw in her eyes the same look Elizabeth gave him when she was determined to have her way. He knew there was no profit in contradicting her right then, so he sat back down, hoping he could join the others once she was through with him.

Lorne gave him a worried look. "Request permission to join Teal'c, sir!"

John nodded. "You have it, Major. Don't wait up for me," He didn't like having to let others face the enemy on their own, but unless he could sneak past Catherine with a bolt in his shoulder and actually stand a chance, there was little he could do for them.

"I'm going, too," Ronon said.

John simply nodded, unsurprised, and looked at Catherine, who was rummaging through her medkit for God knows what.

"Is this gonna take long, Doc?"

"Depends on what you have in mind. I doubt you'll be able to handle a P-90 with that shoulder anytime soon."

Almost instinctively, he grabbed his gun and tried to lift it; his shoulder exploded with pain, and he dropped it back.

In a split second, Catherine was by his side again, her arms folded and an angry look on her face.

"What part of what I said did you not understand? I just told you, you couldn’t!” she growled, so obviously furious it was remarkable she managed to keep her voice low.

His gaze swept over her, pausing on her torn shirt. As their eyes locked, her expression slowly changed. The fury slid away, and her face turned a light shade of pink.

“It’s my fault you got hurt. At least let me tend to your wound,” she said a bit softer.

The sudden guilt in her eyes took him by surprise.

“I’m not blaming you, Doc.”

Catherine lifted his sleeve. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? John, I froze down there.”

“You weren’t trained for that. I shouldn’t have put you in that position in the first place.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I _have_ training, maybe more than any other civilian in Atlantis,” she said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Oh? How’s that?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I’ve had some basic training before Afghanistan. Then some advanced training once I joined the SGC. I didn’t want to, but Colonel O’Neil was adamant. And now... now I’m practicing shooting with Major Lorne.”

That came as a surprise to him. Why didn’t Lorne mention it? Come to think of it, why was he giving shooting lessons in the first place? It seemed he had too much time on his hands.

The needle pierced his skin and he couldn’t hold back a wince. His shoulder was killing him. Lorne and his lessons could wait.

John studied her as she injected him. She was beautiful, he realized, taking his first good look at her since the tea incident. Several locks had escaped from her ponytail and were framing her high cheekbones like a delicate halo.

She finished injecting the serum and put the syringe aside. The effect was almost instantaneous – the pain was gone, and his head felt light. The whole world seemed a little brighter.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Just a local anesthetic," she answered with the most innocent smile on her lips. " _Now_ you're going to let me work."

o0o0o

With his recklessness out of the way, Catherine helped him out of his jacket and took her time to examine the wound carefully. An X-ray would have been helpful, of course, but under the circumstances, it wasn’t an option. At least the readings of her hand scanner confirmed her initial conclusions. It also appeared that the bolt wasn’t hooked, so it could be pulled out without surgery.

"I'll have to cut off your shirt before pulling it out," she informed him, avoiding to look his way.

"I sort of figured that."

The devilish gleam in his eyes made her breath hitch.

She needed to get a grip on herself. He was a patient who needed medical care. True, he was stepping on her nerves most of the time and tended to drive her up the walls with his arrogance and cheap Casanova charm. He was bossy, infuriating, and reckless, and he kept playing the smart-ass. There was also that annoying smile of his that made her bones melt, the messy hair, the...

U-hum... She _needed_ to focus.

She nearly jumped when he grabbed her hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked her with a half-smile.

Her heart skipped, and she gulped.

"Nothing," she answered hastily. "I was... worried the shirt might be stuck to the wound." Even the feel of his hand on hers made her feel lightheaded.

John let go of her hand, but the feel of his touch remained, like a ghostly imprint on her skin. For a brief moment, he looked at her like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite do it. Slowly, his gaze dropped from her face to her chest and back up again, making her stomach coil with anticipation. As their eyes locked, the intensity stirring between them made all her alarms go off.

"Are you sure you're OK?" he insisted. Somehow, he actually managed to sound concerned.

Catherine nodded. God, what she would have given for a nurse right about then. She would have been happy even with Ronon.

Her heart pounding wildly against her chest, she leaned over him, trying to touch him as little as possible as she cut through his shirt. She was nearly done when her fingertips accidentally brushed against his skin, and she froze. They were so close she could almost feel his breath in her hair.

Was he going to kiss her if she lifted her face to him?

She shut her eyes, the need to feel his lips on hers suddenly overwhelming.

What the hell was wrong with her? It wasn't as if she had never seen him shirtless before. True, at that time he had been anesthetized, and she hadn't undressed him, but what was so different?

She had to calm down. He was a patient and she was acting most unprofessional.

Willing strength into her shaky fingers, Catherine removed the blood-soaked bandages and his shirt.

She took a step back to create a bit of space between them before she carefully grabbed the bolt and pulled lightly on it.

"This might hurt a bit," she warned him, her voice almost steady. Almost.

"Just get it over with.”

With a swift move, she yanked the bolt out, wincing as if it was coming out of her shoulder.

"A-au!" he said slowly. "I thought you said you gave me an anesthetic!"

She was sure she had nearly given him too much, but his intervention helped lighten the tension, and she felt grateful for the respite.

"Are you kidding? I nearly put you under,” she said, bagging the bolt for later analysis.

"I wouldn't have minded," he teased, a grin spreading on his face.

“Oh, I’m sure you wouldn’t!”

Her face was burning like a furnace and her cheeks must have turned bright red, but it _was_ easier to breathe now that there was some distance between them. With swift, efficient moves, Catherine dabbed a wad of sterile gauze in disinfectant and applied it to the wound. Gently, she cleaned away the blood, looking intently at the wound as if nothing but it existed. While she was doing this, she felt in charge of her thoughts again.

Making sure the wound was clean, she stitched it up as quickly as possible. Relived, she dropped the needle in a small box and placed it in the kit – she'd dispose of it back on Atlantis – and moved on to the next stage, the one not typically part of her duties – dressing the wound.

o0o0o

Too weak from the blood loss and too euphoric to care, John leaned harder against the wall and let his eyes follow her every movement. As the drug kicked in, he could feel his control lessen and found it increasingly hard not to stare. In fact, her torn shirt made that particular task almost impossible.

He cursed inwardly as she leaned over him to cut his shirt off.

It was all kinds of wrong the way his body responded to her, the way he could feel every inch of her reacting to him despite their situation, despite their surroundings, even despite the incoming Wraith. Hell, despite being wounded _and_ drugged, he was so hard his pants felt two sizes too small. So hard it hurt.

A whiff of her musky perfume washed over him, and he could almost feel the taste of her skin, remember the weight of her breast in his palm. He gulped and silently ordered himself to keep his eyes on her face, his awareness of her so acute he could hardly breathe.

Catherine seemed to feel the tension rising in him and shivered. She was impossibly hot with her flushed cheeks and tousled curls, and he ached to touch her. Ever since he had seen her for the first time, they’d had a strange chemistry that never faded away. If anything, their latest clashes only served to increase it.

Her fingers brushed against his chest and she paused. Yes, she was just as aware of him as he was of her.

He was about to do something stupid when she finally pulled the bolt out. The brief, albeit sharp pain helped him clear his mind and keep his imagination within the grounds of decency. Most of it, anyway.

As she was wrapping the last layer of bandage around his back, her face leaned in only a few inches from his, and her hair brushed softly against his lips. Without taking his eyes off her tense face, he lifted his hand and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

This time, her reaction was abrupt. She jumped back, looking him in the eye, reproachfully. It only lasted a second, but in that second she looked so innocent and so vulnerable that he felt a slight tug of guilt at his heart as if he had been playing with her.

Only he hadn't. He couldn't have.

"You're done," she hissed, standing up and handing him back his jacket.

Without sparing John another glance, she started packing back everything into her kit, making a point of ignoring him.

Back to square one.

o0o0o

The darts had reached the temple in no time. They whooshed above their heads, leaving behind dozens of Wraith.

Taking cover behind the entrance, Teal'c and Samantha opened fire, followed close behind by Lorne and Ronon. Behind them, Rodney looked on with horror at the approaching Wraith. No matter how many they took out, they kept coming.

The white beams of their stunners zipped through the air, hitting the walls, so close to Rodney's head he felt it might have been safer to outright join the fight.

He managed to fire two shots into the chest of the closest Wraith who didn't look the least bit impressed.

"Where's Catherine?" he shouted, hoping that Ronon had a satisfying answer.

"We left her with Sheppard," Lorne answered, taking out another incoming Wraith.

Come to think of it, John was nowhere in sight. It wasn't like him to hold back from a fight, least of all against the Wraith. Something was amiss, and Rodney suddenly decided he needed to look into it.

"There's too many of them!" cried Sam.

"Then we should weed them out a little," Lorne said, throwing a grenade in their general direction.

The sound of the explosion hit their eardrums at the same time as the dust cloud it had created, partially covering the battlefield.

"Do you have more of those?" Sam asked, sounding slightly impressed.

"Quite a few," the Major answered, pulling out another one and handing it to her. "Any bright ideas?"

"Might be." Sam weighed the grenade in her hand. "Pull back!" she instructed, a plan edging its way in her mind.

"What!" Ronon snapped. "What do we gain by letting them in?"

"Time," she said. "Come on, before the dust settles!"

Rodney gave her a distrustful look but followed nonetheless. Dealing alone with the Wraith wasn’t high on his bucket list.

o0o0o

"This way, Major!" Teyla called.

A little way ahead of them was a door opened to the outside.

They had made their way into the secret passage through sheer luck – it was hidden from view behind a worn-out tapestry, guarded by intricate columns. They would have nearly missed it had Teyla not felt the current of air hit her skin through the fabric.

It was a tight passage, barely two feet across, and Coburn had to keep his head down so he wouldn't hit it against the ceiling. If this was where their attackers had come in through, they must have been very familiar with their surroundings.

o0o0o

After the dust settled, the Wraith discovered their enemies had fled. Without a second thought, they charged the temple, looking for clues as to where their prey might be hiding.

Samantha's synthesized voice could be heard clearly over the radio in the dead silence that followed in the Wraith's wake. Growling, the Wraith headed for the source of the sound, through the corridor leading away from the main hall.

They had tracked it to a small room where all they could find was a radio, left on the floor. Looking to the side, he noticed three humans, backing away in horror.

Shaking his head, the creature threw away the radio and charged toward the three humans, followed closely by his cohorts. As they charged, the humans retreated. The look of sheer horror on their faces was a delight.

Suddenly, their advance was blocked by an invisible barrier.

Unnoticed, the grenade snaked its way between their feet.

The first Wraith barely had time to see the look on the male's face turn from terror to wicked glee before hell broke loose. The explosion shook the hall, reverberating against the columns.

What was left of the Wraith were picked off by rapid blasts of bullets or zapped with laser.

Soon after, all that was left were the fuming bodies of dead Wraith, crowded on the floor in front of the barrier.

o0o0o

They had seen Wraith before – in the descriptions attached to mission reports and on the Ancient terminals in Atlantis. They didn't consider themselves completely unprepared when the hoard barged into the antechamber. Or so they thought. Seeing them in person was far more chilling than they could have expected; they were taller, darker, and wilder than they could have possibly imagined. Even through the barrier, they could feel the full force of the terror they inspired.

They didn't need encouragement to step back in horror while the creatures charged. All three of them were seized by the fear that the force field would give out right when they needed it most.

Then there was the shock of the explosion and the flurry of bullets.

Confused and unsteady, Daniel took a few unsure steps back and hit the wall behind him.

And found himself on the floor.

Part of the wall had given way, and he had stumbled into a chamber that looked like the mirror image of the hall he had been in.

Picking himself off of the floor, he walked back, careful that the door wouldn't close behind him.

The dust of the battle was settling, and he could see Sam and the others walking in, checking the bodies for life signs.

"You could have warned us!" he yelled.

"We wouldn't have got the same, genuine feeling of fear had we told you we were waiting in the wings," she said, smiling.

"With explosives?" he asked. "What if the force field couldn't take it?"

"We would have all probably been Wraith bait," said Ronon, finishing his rounds.

"I think one has escaped," said Sam, looking worriedly around. "Where's Rodney?"

"He was going after Dr. Spencer and John," Lorne answered.

“I’ll go get them,” Ronon offered.

He turned and left without waiting for an answer.

o0o0o

After her outburst, Catherine had remained silent and kept an eye on him from a distance. After a few unsuccessful attempts, John had managed to put his shirt back on and was staying quietly in his side of the room.

She needed to get a handle on whatever was brewing between them, and the sooner she did that the better. Nothing good was ever going to come of her attraction, so it was stupid to waste time mooning over him. She felt silly, obsessing like that over a flyboy. Putting some distance between them might help, but that was a bit tricky with him being the military leader of Atlantis and all that.

The thought of leaving his team had occurred to her, but she didn’t dare considering it. It felt too much like quitting, and she wasn’t a quitter. And with the red flu virus still out there, she needed the freedom to travel off-world and take as many samples as possible. Help as many people as possible. Put an end to the ever-changing threat posed by the pathogen.

Sure, she could probably do that in Major Lorne’s team, but-

“Catherine!”

The sudden alarm in his voice brought her head up only to find herself staring into the eyes of a Wraith. For an instant, utter malice glinted in those alien eyes, and Catherine knew she was looking death in the face.

The Wraith sneered at her.

"Shoot the damn thing!" John cried, loud enough for her to hear over the mad pounding of her heart.

She never knew when her hand went for the gun. One instant it was on her hip, the next she was aiming it at the Wraith and firing again, and again, and again until no bullet remained.

The creature growled as the wounds started to heal themselves.

Catherine stared incredulously at the useless gun in her hand.

So, that was it? Were they going to die in that temple? Have their lives sucked away by a freaky alien monster?

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw John propping his gun against the wall and aiming it at the creature.

"Catherine, run!" he yelled before pressing the trigger.

His aim was off by a few inches, but it was enough to attract the Wraith's attention to him.

“Run! That’s an order!”

Catherine glanced at the door and back at him. She was scared shitless, but one thing she knew with absolute clarity. If she ran, he died.

Oh, no. Not going to happen.

"I am _not_ leaving you behind!"

Her voice sounded surprisingly steady to her own ears. The contrast with what she felt was so sharp it nearly gave her a fit of hysterical laughter. Fighting the rising panic in her chest, she fumbled in her pockets for a weapon until she found her pocketknife.

It wasn’t much of a weapon, but she wasn’t much of a fighter either. It didn't mean she'd give up without a fight. If this was the way it all ended, then she would go down fighting to her very last breath.

She clutched the pocketknife in her right hand and flung it awkwardly at the creature.

"What are you gonna do with _that_?" John’s disbelief was obvious in his voice. She shot a quick look his way and saw him adjusting his aim a little before letting out another burst from his gun, with just as little success as before.

“Hey, ugly!” She focused all her attention on the hellish alien. “Leave him alone! I just fixed him!”

Her words made little impression on him, so she threw the empty gun at its head. As the weapon of choice found its target, the Wraith turned to her with an enraged growl.

Barely able to keep her teeth from chattering, Catherine backed away slowly, the knife still gripped tightly in her sweating, shaking hand.

Nobody else was going to die and leave her behind. Not this time. Not ever again. It was her turn now. The thought was oddly comforting, and she embraced it with every fiber of her being.

_‘I am here. I am not running.’_

A stray bullet almost hit her, piercing the wall behind her instead. She didn’t even flinch. Once she had made peace with dying an eerie calm enveloped her.

"Leave her alone!"

She could barely hear John, as if his voice was coming from miles away. In this new dimension, only the Wraith felt real - an embodiment of her imminent death.

"What do you intend to use _that_ for, little human?" the Wraith growled with what might pass for amusement, looking at her meager weapon. He raised his hand with obvious intent.

Taking advantage by the distraction he provided, Catherine thrusted the knife in his neck, pushing it inside the blue flesh as hard as she could. With a terrible snarl, the creature threw her towards the wall. The back of her head exploded with white-hot pain and the world began to fade as the stones rushed to greet her. She gasped and choked down the urge to vomit from the intensity of the pain.

She heard more than she saw the creature bending over her, and a surge of adrenaline shot through her veins. Faster than she thought possible, Catherine rolled to the side and grabbed the alien’s wrists, fighting to keep his claws away from her chest.

“Catherine!”

An impossibly strong hand pinned her by the throat, and she started to see patches of darkness. Her time was running out, she realized, reaching frantically for the knife. His feeding hand went straight for her chest as her fingers closed around the blade and pushed it further into the Wraith.

“Die already!”

She stabbed it once more but her grip on the knife was weakening by the second. The long, sharp nails of the creature pierced the skin of her chest, and a strange dizziness followed. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Her throat, like her whole body, seemed frozen and unable to respond to her brain. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t see. It was the most terrifying feeling she had ever experienced.

Suddenly, his claws stopped digging into her flesh, and a heavy mass landed on top of her, rushing the breath out of her lungs.

“Are you OK?” she heard John’s voice.

It took her brain a few seconds to process what happened.

“I... think so,” she managed to say, her voice scratchy and raw.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn’t done it. The mouth of the dead Wraith was so close to her face it almost touched it. The indescribable stench emanating from it made bile raise in her throat.

“Take it... off of me.”

She turned her head aside and choked down the sudden rush of nausea.

“That’s what I’m trying to do!”

Using his left hand, John managed to push the dead creature off of her and helped her up before recovering his tac knife from the Wraith’s back. Still shaking and too weak to stand on her own, she leaned into him to steady herself.

“You haven’t aged. You’re lucky he didn’t manage to start feeding, or no amount of stabbing would have helped,” he informed her coldly, his eyes hard as they fell on the puncture marks on her chest.

His anger hit her like a punch to the stomach and she took a step back, suddenly uncomfortable with his closeness.

“John....”

He gave her a withering look.

“I gave you a _direct_ order, Catherine! And I remember you giving me _your_ word that you would follow _my_ lead! Am I missing something?”

His voice was tight with suppressed anger, all traces of his usual humor gone, and he looked every bit the superior officer that he was.

She could understand his anger. He had given her an order, she had disregarded it, she had almost been killed in the process. She had done that before and O’Neil’s reaction had been pretty similar, so she had half-expected it. But blind obedience wasn’t her strong suit, and she knew enough about him to know it wasn’t his either.

Angry tears stung her eyes, threatening to spill down her face. She blinked them back and rose her hand in a mock military salute.

“Sir. No, sir,” she said, her vision blurring even more. “Your memory is as sharp as ever.”

His mouth tightened even more, like he was holding back a whole bunch of profanities.

“Sheppard! Catherine! I’m glad you’re all right! Oh...”

Over John’s shoulder, she saw Rodney standing in the doorway, his eyes growing wide at the sight of the dead Wraith.

She could literally kiss him for the interruption.

John, however, didn’t even take his eyes off her face.

“Not now, Rodney.”

“What did I say?”

Catherine felt almost sorry for Rodney, but mostly she felt grateful for the chance to regain her composure.

“I said, _not now!_ ”

Mumbling something under his breath, Rodney pivoted and walked away.

Once more, they were alone.

A heavy silence fell upon the room as they faced each other, their eyes locked in an absurd battle of wills.

“John, I understand your feelings on this, but-”

“There are no ‘buts’, Catherine! That was the kind of order I expect you to follow without questioning!”

“Bullshit! It was the kind I could never-”

“Sheppard,” Ronon cut her words short.

“What?!” John asked curtly and turned towards the Sataedan. She could see he was more than annoyed at being interrupted again, a feeling she didn’t quite share.

“This area isn’t safe,” the big man said.

“Oh, what makes you say that?” His voice was heavy with sarcasm, his face tight with anger. “We were just having a picnic. We even had guests, but the food didn’t agree with them.” He gestured in the direction of the dead Wraith.

Unsurprisingly, the big guy wasn’t in the mood for bad jokes.

“Come with me,” he said and rushed to help John. With the adrenaline starting to wear off, he looked so pale she feared the wound had reopened. For a moment, she considered asking him to take another look at his shoulder, but thought better of it. After all, between the blood loss and the anesthetic she gave him, it was amazing he had been able to stand for so long.

Before she followed them out, Catherine recovered her pocketknife from the Wraith’s neck. Carefully, she wiped it clean and looked at the ancient patterns decorating its handle with something akin to affection. She was only 10 years old when she had stolen it from Daniel.

It used to remind her younger self of the man she secretly hoped to marry one day.

Now it only reminded her of happier times. Simpler times.

She put it back in her pocket and let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

She missed simpler times.

o0o0o

Taking advantage of the confusion, Vala decided she might take a closer look at whatever it was Daniel had stumbled upon this time. Before she could make it through the doorway, Miranda had grabbed her by the wrist, holding her back.

"Not this time," the younger woman warned, tired of all the excitement of the day.

Daniel caught sight of them in time to stop either of them walking in. He was inclined to suspect Vala of such intentions, but couldn't yet exclude Miranda from the equation entirely.

"Get back here," he warned both of them.

Running his flashlight across the room, he confirmed his initial impression – it was the mirror image of this one, down to the same altar. Unlike the one they were in, this mirror room looked deserted, so he put away his gun and walked in.

Despite his warnings, Miranda and Vala followed closely behind him, curious what it might hold.

Up close, the altar turned out to be a console with a ZPM encased at its heart.

"It did say treasure..." said Vala, her eyes gleaming at the sight.

"I don't really think this is what they had in mind," Daniel commented, looking closely at the controls. "Though... it _is_ a nice find."

"You think we can turn off the force field from here?" Miranda asked, trying to make sense of the symbols on the console.

"Might be."


	4. Chapter 4

No matter how hard he tried, the signs made no sense. Aside from a few he recognized, some had worn down with time, while others were entirely new for him. They might have been technical terms, but he couldn't really be sure. To figure them out, he would have needed more time and a lot more silence than he had at hand.

"I have complete faith in your ability to figure out what it does," Vala encouraged him. She had seated herself on the edge of the console and was playing with the zipper of her jacket, revealing a little bit too much. Someone should remind her not to forget her bra in the future.

Daniel swallowed the painful knot in his throat and frowned furiously at her. He was starting to understand those monks.

There was a lot of stunned silence coming from Miranda’s side of the room, and he was determined to ignore it for now. Things were uncomfortable enough without the audience.

"Will you please get off before you start anything else?" he asked icily.

Vala looked down at where she was seating. "But there were no buttons or anything," she said innocently.

"!" he insisted.

Rolling her eyes, she complied. "Alright! Alright!"

"And stop doing that," he said, his eyes still fixed on her chest.

"Doing what?" she asked – the perfect image of innocence.

"That!" he said, mimicking her constant zipping and unzipping.

With a delighted grin, she zipped up her jacket. "Was it working?"

Daniel was about to comment but was interrupted by Sam's voice in his radio.

"Have you found anything?" she asked. Daniel could feel the curiosity in her voice, and he could bet she would have preferred being on their side of the force field.

"Oh... just a ZPM..." he couldn't help teasing.

In the silence that followed, he could almost picture Sam drooling.

"Only thing is, I'm not sure how to get it out of here. There's a console, but I don't understand the controls," he explained.

Before she could answer, Daniel was distracted by Vala's fussing over the controls. She had spotted the only symbol she could recognize and pushed the button before he could stop her. Again.

A wave of energy burst out of the console, leaving Vala stunned and confused for a second. "What just happened?" she asked, snapping back.

Instead of an answer, she saw Daniel crash to the ground, unconscious.

o0o0o

The sight before his eyes was new and confusing. He found himself looking out at a strange new planet from the deck of an unfamiliar ship. The crew was busy at their stations, but he soon recognized some. Cameron was at the command, and he joined him.

"Where are we?" he asked, unsure of what exactly was going on.

"What do you mean? We're on our way to the Ori homeworld. You found the weapon in Pegasus. We're about to use it to rid the Universe of their threat," he explained cheerfully.

Daniel frowned, trying to remember what had happened after he had left Atlantis, but he couldn't even remember that. His last memory was of a Wraith infested temple and explosions. A thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Where's Vala?"

Cameron gave him a long look, the kind he had grown used to after Sha're's death – a mix of pity and remorse. "She was killed in our last confrontation. If it weren't for her, we would have never reached this place."

He tried not to look affected by the news – after all, he was supposed to have already known this. It didn't quite feel right, but he had time to think about that later.

Right now, he could make sure her sacrifice wasn't in vain.

"Prepare for detonation," Cameron ordered.

"Wait!" Daniel stopped him "What is it supposed to do?" he asked, referring to the strange-looking device mounted in the control room.

"It should wipe out the ascended beings, as you already know. For God's sake, Daniel, you translated the instructions!" Cameron shouted, losing his patience.

"I did?" Daniel said, turning to the device again. It definitely didn't look familiar. He could, however, remember seeing the stone before – it was the same one from Merlin's pendant. "And what did I mean by _should_?"

"We can't be sure it won't affect other life forms. But we're safe, it's directed at the planet, and we're almost certain the effects won't reach other inhabited worlds."

"The weapon is fully charged, sir," someone announced.

"You're not sure. And there's more than the Ori living on this planet?" Daniel said horrified, heading back to Cameron's side.

"We can talk about this later. We can't save everyone, and if we don't fire now, we won't get another chance before they detect our presence and start shooting at _us_ ," Cameron explained, at wit's end.

"How many unsavable someones are we talking here?" Daniel insisted, looking back at the planet.

Someone placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to find Samantha shaking her head sorrowfully. "About ten thousand," she said. "I'm sorry, Daniel, but it's either them or the rest of the inhabited Universe."

"There must be another way!"

"Sir, they have us in sight!" someone warned.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," said Cameron.

Before the weapon could be fired, Daniel pushed Sam aside and grabbed the stone mounted at the top of the device, rendering it useless.

The confusion that followed was quickly quieted by an energy blast hitting their ship. With considerable force, Daniel was thrown back into the wall, rendering him unconscious.

o0o0o

"Daniel, are you alright?" he could hear Vala calling him through the haze of unconsciousness. He wanted to answer and tell her she was dead, but his mouth refused to work. His head throbbed in pain, still experiencing the effects of the impact.

With superhuman effort, he managed to open his eyes and was greeted with the sight of a very concerned looking Vala looming over him. A smile of relief bloomed on her face. "You're conscious!" she squeed, grabbing him and hugging him to her chest and kissing him.

"A-au!" he protested in pain, too confused by recent events to even try to make sense of them.

Realizing she was hurting him, Vala released him from her embrace and lay his head back on her lap. "Sorry..."

"What happened?" he asked, rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head.

"You blacked out. The console emitted this energy beam; it left me stunned for a second and left you unconscious. You gave me quite a scare," she said, still a lot more serious than her usual self.

Daniel sighed in relief. It had been an illusion – he didn't endanger the lives of his friends, they hadn't risked the lives of innocents, and Vala was still there to torture him with her affection. Oddly enough, he was most glad of the last one, but he would be damned before admitting it aloud.

A white beam brushed the air in front of their eyes.

"Don't look at me," Vala defended herself, arms raised "I didn't touch anything... recently."

The beam materialized into a translucent human shape. The hologram looked like an old monk, bearded, and robed in long, gray habits. An amiable smile softened his face, and there was a twinkle in his eye that made him look alive.

"You have proven worthy. The treasure you shall be entrusted with is the most dangerous weapon, but you are wise enough to handle it. I do not need to tell you of the responsibility such power demands," the hologram explained. "Use it well and good luck in your quest."

Instead of vanishing into thin air, as these things usually did, the hologram lingered a while and added. "And should your burden ever prove too heavy, you will always find sanctuary here." His gaze wandered over to Vala before finally vanishing.

"Did he wink?" Vala asked, taken aback. "And why did he call me a burden?"

"He wasn't talking about you, he was talking about responsibilities," he said absently. But he did see the wink, and he remembered the inscription.

He jumped to his feet, regretting it instantly.

"Is everything alright?" Sam called through the radio.

"We just met an Ancient that's fond of shipping, but we're fine otherwise," he said, wincing in pain.

"An Ancient?" asked Sam in surprise. "You can't be serious."

"Shipping?" Vala sounded rather pleased by the prospect.

Daniel gave Vala a warning look. "He was pretending to be a hologram, but he seemed pretty much alive."

"That's great, he can tell you more about the weapon," Sam said, excited.

"He could if he had stuck around long enough. He's vanished."

From beyond the doorway, Miranda called after them. "Dr. Jackson, you have to see this!"

The altar had opened on one side, letting a stone drawer slide out. Inside, there was a magnificent red stone, too large to be a ruby. Daniel recognized it instantly as the one he had pulled out of the device, the one Merlin had worn around his neck. They had actually found it.

However, he didn't take as much pleasure in the thought, constantly plagued by the images from earlier. Was that what the stone really did? He could only hope what he had seen was not a glimpse of the future and that they would never be forced to make such decisions for the sake of the Universe. The responsibility would be too high.

"Sam, I think we found it," he called, picking the stone up before Vala could.

The force field retreated in the sound of pouring sand, leaving the three exposed to the petulant smell of burning Wraith bodies and gun powder.

o0o0o

The return to the gate proved to be as challenging as the climb. Ronon and Lorne were carrying on an impressive stretch of carved marble – it had taken them nearly an hour to dig it out of the wall. They had no clue why it required so much effort when they had enough equipment to record the inscriptions photographically, but it must have held _some_ particular importance from what they could see of Daniel and Miranda's insistence that they take it out and carry it back to the Gate.

At least, their toil gave John time to recover enough to walk back on his own. Despite constantly worrying about his condition, Catherine kept a safe distance behind him. It might have had something to do with their earlier confrontation. Rodney was busy with the ZPM and was being surprisingly quiet – probably because Sam had been right again and he hadn't forgiven her for it. Daniel and Miranda were too busy examining the gem to pay real attention to the terrain, leaving it up to Coburn to watch over them; he had enough experience babysitting Dr. Jackson to handle a double ration of his absentmindedness. Deprived of other entertainment, Vala was pestering Teal'c and Teyla, trying to elicit _some_ sort of response out of them.

They had nearly reached the gate when Teyla noticed something was odd in the way the men were waiting for them, aligned in an orderly fashion, without any of their weapons or equipment in sight.

"Colonel," she warned, but John was still too confused to register the significance of the scene immediately. He took a few more steps forward before being pulled back by Catherine. The others stopped in their tracks as well.

From behind the bushes, they could see the metal gleam of crossbow bolts being aimed at them.

Coburn instinctively reached for his weapon, as did Sam and Teal'c, but a voice from the sideline stopped them before they could aim. "Lower your weapons. This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed."

John couldn't see the speaker, but the voice had something annoyingly familiar to it. He could, however, see the dozens of men surrounding them, guns or crossbows aimed and ready.

Ronon swore to himself and put down the slab of stone to reach for his gun.

“We’re not looking for a fight. We were just visiting the ruins,” John said, trying to sound reasonable.

“Put your gun down or die where you stand!” came the answer. Even through the thick haze his head was still swimming in, he could nearly pin the voice to a face.

“I can take two before they get a shot,” Ronon assured him.

“Well, good for you. I can’t take any.” The anesthetic had started to wear off, and a dull pain was pulsing through his shoulder.

“We risk injuring villagers who are only defending their temple,” Teyla said. “They don’t look like Wraith worshipers to me.”

“And us. We risk injuring us,” McKay’s sense of preservation kicked in. Even without looking at him, John could tell he was already panicking.

But Teyla was right, the men surrounding them didn’t look like the guys at the temple. And for a change, they were willing to talk.

“It’s your call,” Ronon said, his eyes sparkling with a little too much excitement.

He knew there was no way they could handle them all, and they had civilians to worry about. Surrendering _was_ the only sane option. Yet, he had a bad feeling about it.

"Put your guns down, guys," John ordered, clenching his jaw.

Reluctantly, they lowered their weapons and placed them on the ground. Even Ronon changed his mind about firing and reholstered his gun. He didn't look happy about it.

"That's better," said the annoying voice, its owner finally stepping out from among the trees.

"Kolya," John growled. "Didn't I say I'll kill you next time?"

"Nice to see you too, Colonel," the Genii greeted. "You look a great deal younger than when I last saw you. One could almost suspect you’ve made a deal with that Wraith.”

“If anyone made a deal with the Wraith it was you, Kolya.”

The Genii looked genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"

"It was one of your men who alerted the Wraith of our presence."

Kolya quickly inspected his men. "I only want the best for my people, despite what you might think of me."

"Cut the crap, Kolya. What do you want?"

"The same as you do."

“A turkey sandwich?” he asked. “No? A cold beer, then?”

“I always thought you were smarter than that,” Kolya sneered.

"If you’re after a ZPM again, we didn't find any," John ventured, hoping Rodney had had enough inspiration to hide it.

Kolya displayed a look of mock surprise. "Who said anything about a ZPM? I'm talking about the stone. Hand it over, if you please. And if you don't, hand it over anyway, or I’ll start shooting.”

Before he got a chance to open his mouth, Catherine stepped beside him. "I believe we haven’t been properly introduced," she said. “I’m Dr. Catherine Spencer, Chief of Medicine.”

Kolya’s eyes darted between John and Catherine, his usually calculated face mirroring the same confusion he felt.

"This is Commander Kolya, of the Genii,” John introduced him. He had no idea what she had in mind, but he hoped it wasn’t something as reckless as attacking a Wraith with a pocketknife. “Just a constant pain in our asses."

Catherine nodded, ignoring his last comment.

“Commander Kolya, I can assure you we have no weapon of interest for you or your people,” she said, her voice surprisingly steady and calm. “But your men look in need of medical supply, which I’m sure I could secure for you if you let us go.”

In need of medical supply? He took a better look at the soldiers. Despite their determination, they looked ragged, beaten, and tired beyond measure. It was hardly a surprise since the entire Genii government hunted them, but Catherine was right. With any other commander, they might have actually reached an agreement. She just didn’t know Kolya as well as he did.

“Your proposal is very generous, Dr. Spencer,” Kolya agreed. “However, under the circumstances, I will have to decline. We have tried to negotiate with Atlantis before, and it didn’t end well for my people.”

The nerve of the guy!

“What are you talking about?! We always held our end of the bargain! You invaded our city, tried to steal from us, killed my soldiers...”

“Injured me,” McKay added. John gave him a warning look. “What, my arm still aches when... Fine!” he snapped, finally taking the hint. Rolling his eyes, John turned towards the Genii Commander.

“Those are all in the past,” Catherine insisted. “I’m sure we can work out a solution.”

She sounded an awful lot like Elizabeth. And just like her, she refused to see there was no reasonable way out of their current predicament. Not with a scumbag like Kolya.

As if reading his mind, Kolya let out a sarcastic laugh.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” he said, his eyes narrowing.

The Genii Commander moved his hand to aim his gun at Catherine. He swallowed, trying to control the churning sensation in his stomach, and glanced at her. If Kolya’s threat had scared her at all, she surely knew how to hide it. She was either in shock or more cold-blooded than he gave her credit for. Suddenly, O’Neill’s recommendation to ban her from off-world travels made a lot more sense. It had been foolish to think he could handle her better.

“It takes a lot of nerve to look Death in the eye like you do, Doctor, and I respect that,” Kolya said calmly. “It would be a shame for you to die here.” His eyes met John’s, hard and implacable. “It’s up to you, Colonel. Hand me over the stone, or say goodbye to Dr. Spencer.”

No hesitation. No bluffing. John was about to give the order to hand over the stone when Ronon took a step forward.

"You want the stone? Here, take it," he offered, gesturing to the large piece of marble they had lugged all the way downhill. "I honestly have no idea why they made us carry the thing all the way here."

Taking advantage of the distraction, John rounded on Catherine and gave her a sharp look. “Get behind me,” he ordered, putting as much steel in his voice as he could muster. “Now, Catherine!”

She tensed, and for a moment he feared she’d disobey him again. Then she nodded and took a few steps back. Not waiting for an invitation, Rodney grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him.

With her out of the line of fire, he turned his attention back to Kolya, who was examining the monolith with an expression of skepticism on his face.

“Is this it?" he asked the villagers.

In turn, they looked just as skeptically at the carved stone. "Our legends talk of a fiery red gem, not about a part of the temple. If this writing holds any significance to these strangers, it comes from their own curiosity. The writing has been lost to us for generations, but I doubt it is what you’re looking for."

"Quit screwing around and hand over the stone. The _proper_ one, Sheppard."

“And what use could that possibly have for you?”

"The locals have assured us the stone is a weapon of incredible power, and incredible power is useful for all people, especially for the Genii.”

"The stone only works on ascended beings," John tried to reason with him. "The Wraith haven't achieved this yet, last time I checked."

“I'd rather have one of my scientists tell me that," Kolya said. “Look, if you’d rather sacrifice yourselves for that stone, I’m more than willing to consider it. I’ll start with your friends.”

“Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that we have the stone and we give it to you. What happens next? Will you let my team go?” John asked.

“I feel generous. Hand me the stone, and you’re all free to go. You have my word.”

He trusted Kolya about as far as he could throw him, but he didn’t have much of a choice. They could either give him the stone and _maybe_ stay alive, or try to defend it and die a meaningless death. Either way, the stone was lost.

Besides, if Kolya wanted them dead, he could have killed them already and pry the stone from their cold, lifeless fingers. Well, Daniel Jackson’s fingers, since he was the one carrying the damned thing.

Probably reaching the same conclusion, Dr. Jackson made his way to the front, holding the gem in his hand.

"Look, we don't want trouble," he said.

“Daniel, what the hell are you doing?!” Catherine asked. "You can't weigh Earth's chances with the Ori against my life!"

John opened his mouth to protest, but Dr. Jackson beat him to the punch.

"We wouldn't be any better than them if we did that," he said, looking at her with a faint smile. “Besides, it isn't only your life on the line. It's ours, too.”

“He’s right, you know,” John admitted.

Daniel handed the stone to Kolya. "Here, take it and leave us alone."

Kolya weighed the red gem in his hand and looked through it into the sun. "A brilliant move." He didn’t seem in a hurry. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying a bit too much keeping them in suspense.

The effect of the anesthetic had entirely worn off by now, and John’s shoulder was throbbing like a bitch. He forced himself to think calmly through the pain, but his patience was slipping away fast, and he knew he was at the end of his rope.

“You got what you wanted, Kolya,” he said. “Be a man of your word for once and let my team go.”

Kolya pocketed the stone, taking his time.

“You may all live, Colonel. You see, not only that I gave you my word, but you tend to prove useful every now and then. The Genii would have a lot more work to do finding these objects if it wasn't for you and your team."

John winced at the thought. It bothered him more than he’d ever admit.

"I hope you won't mind if we see you out the gate. It's the least we can do for you after finding this lovely piece for us." Kolya smiled, but the smile never quite reached his eyes. "But do not expect us to be as lenient the next time."

"Pray there won't be a _next time_ ," John warned.

"And why would I want to avoid such a fruitful reunion?"

"I was just saying..." John’s rueful smile barely hid the threat that was lingering between them.

"I advise you to leave before I change my mind. You can leave your weapons here; my men tend to be a bit jumpy around armed individuals."

o0o0o

"You both seem fine to me," said Dr. Biro, looking over the results of Daniel and Vala's tests. "You have a mild concussion, Dr. Jackson, but I wouldn't worry about that. There are no complications. I'm not entirely sure what that beam did to you, but it hasn't left any after effects," she assured them.

Daniel nodded. "Thank you, Dr. Biro."

He stood up, waiting for Vala to follow, but she seemed lost in thought.

"How was it, again?" she asked.

"What?"

The wide grin on her face made him wonder what was she up to this time.

"Colonel Sheppard's list. There was grave robbers, Wraith worshipers – I think that Kolya guy was surprised by that one – Wraith, crazy villagers, Genii, a secret passage..." she counted on her fingers.

"The only thing missing was the fangirls," he laughed.

Vala glanced across the Infirmary, and Daniel followed her gaze to see Catherine dressing Col. Sheppard’s wound.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that..." Vala said, raising an amused eyebrow.

"Come on, you can't possibly be saying that-" but his words were cut short when he noticed the way Catherine was looking at the Colonel.

It was a look he had given up hope of ever seeing in her eyes.

"We should get going," he said, not giving Vala the chance to turn it all into a joke.

o0o0o

A few hours later, all but Rodney had gathered in the briefing room. They had updated Elizabeth on the events up to their encounter with Kolya.

John's arm was in a sling, despite his insistence that there was no difference whatsoever if he held it like this or had it free since the wound was too high up on his body to make a difference. Catherine had been insistent enough to make him give up eventually and accept her ministrations. He had just reached the part in their exchange with Kolya when they were asked to hand over the artifact.

"Of course, I thought he meant the ZPM, and I could only hope McKay had had the sense to hide it and hide it well," he said.

"He was surprisingly calm about it. He didn't even blink when Kolya asked for the treasure," Ronon commented with a chuckle.

John looked around for the scientist, worried the praise might go to his head. "Where is he?"

"He's busy with the ZPM. He's very proud of the find," Elizabeth explained.

"However, we did lose the artifact," John concluded and turned to look at Daniel, who couldn't stop giggling. "What's so funny?"

"About that... I'm sorry, it will probably prove valuable to the Genii, but not the way they might expect it to," Daniel apologized, looking over at Miranda with a grin.

The young woman nodded.

"It did strike us as odd from the very beginning, but it took us a while to figure out why," she said.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, waiting for a better explanation.

"It wasn't the real thing," Daniel said. "It looked like it, but what the Genii got out of this deal is a huge, valuable ruby that will help them increase their funds. I'm sorry about that."

Vala nearly choked in surprise. "You just handed over treasure like that?"

"The thing is," he went on, ignoring her outburst, "the pendant wasn't supposed to be ruby. I think we're safe to presume the real pendant has been moved away long ago."

"However," Miranda chipped in proudly, "Dr. Jackson and I have already made great progress in deciphering the inscription we brought back from the temple."

Ronon and Lorne groaned hearing about the monolith they had to carry all the way back to the Gate.

"We've managed to add quite a few new words to the Lantian dictionary!" Daniel said, with great pride.

"Any clue as to where the real pendant might be?" Elizabeth inquired.

"No… Not really… mostly a lot of stuff about the burden of marriage…" He hesitated. "However, the cultural value is immense! We might learn so much about wedding ceremonies at the time of the Ancients!"

"Fascinating," Ronon growled. "We stretched our arms out of their sockets so you could find out what an Ancient wedding was like! Why didn't Kolya fall for it and take the damn thing with him when he had the chance?"

Daniel was about to protest when Elizabeth cut in to reestablish peace.

“Gentlemen, please,” she said. "At least we got a ZPM out of this, and you can power the chair in Antarctica."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," McKay said, walking in. "The ZPM is nearly depleted. It had been powering the temple for ages, the force field was a big drain on it and having to absorb the blast of the explosion was the last straw. You might get about 5% out of it, which is something but not nearly enough for a serious use of that chair."

John slouched lazily in his chair, letting his usual nonchalant mask cover his own disappointment.

"Cheer up, Rodney. Five is better than nothing."

Keenly aware of Catherine’s presence across the table, he lifted his eyes to meet hers. A long moment passed as she held his gaze. Her white face became even paler, but she didn’t back down. At his small nod, he could see some of the tension draining from her shoulders as her eyes filled with gratitude.

He had intentionally left her insubordination out of the report as something they had to settle in private. She was a member of his team. It was his call whether or not she was going to join them on another mission. There was no point in hanging her out to dry. That didn’t mean he was going to go easy on her.

What she had done was so reckless he still had trouble wrapping his mind around it. Not only had she disobeyed him, but she had also attacked a Wraith with a _pocketknife_.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was that she had almost gotten killed under his watch. In front of his eyes.

He took a deep breath, surprised by the intensity of the emotion that rose up in him.

She might have saved his life, but he wasn’t about to thank her for that. He had to make sure she’d never disregard a direct order ever again. Not if she wanted to be a part of his team.

“Oh? If you don’t mind, I’d rather fume for a moment, thank you very much!” Rodney grumbled, snapping him back to the present. “You see, there were two and only two valuable things on that godforsaken planet. One was the red stone we handed to Kolya, the other a ZPM. If we can’t even use it to power the chair, our little crusade just went from marginally pointless to _completely_ pointless. Not to mention you getting hurt and Catherine nearly losing-”

“McKay!” John trained an unflinching gaze on Rodney, making no attempt to hide his irritation.

Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, the scientist pursed his mouth and stared at some invisible point on the wall. He could understand his frustration, but this was not the time nor the place to let it out.

“All right,” Elizabeth intervened, with a stern look generally reserved for unruly children. “While it’s not exactly good news, we have to take what we're offered, I guess. I expect your full reports on the mission as soon as possible."

"Unfortunately, we've been away from Earth for long enough. We’re scheduled to return tomorrow morning, but we'll send our reports as soon as we can," Colonel Carter said.

“I understand. Well, send our regards to General O’Neill!”

“We will.”

Elizabeth rose to her feet, letting them know the meeting was over.

"Thank you, everyone."

o0o0o

Daniel was almost done packing – there wasn't much to pack, after all; some Ancient tablets he needed to examine once he returned, a few clothes, and several books he didn’t get to read. He was looking at the small box left on the bed when there was a knock on the door. Grateful it wasn't Vala, who wouldn't have bothered to wait politely for him to open, he headed for the door and waved his hand before the panel.

It was Catherine.

A bit surprised, he stepped back so she could come in. He had been under the impression she was avoiding him for reasons only she knew. It looked like he had been wrong.

"Hi," he said, hesitating.

"I heard you were leaving tomorrow." She looked around the room, and her eyes landed on his bags. "I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you properly."

Daniel shut the door behind her, then turned to face her. "It's alright. It's been pretty chaotic around here."

She looked flustered and had difficulty finding her words. He waited for her to find her own pace.

"I've missed you," she eventually said. "I've missed having someone to talk to, someone who listened."

"I've missed you, too." He pulled her into a hug.

"I feel like I don’t belong here, Daniel," she whispered, her voice muffled in his shoulder. "If only I could run home with you!"

Daniel raised an eyebrow. Something must have happened since they last met to make her so willing to run away. He tried to encourage her.

"You're not doing that bad for yourself here."

She didn't reply but held tighter to him.

"I hear you've been going out with Dr. McKay..." He wasn't a great fan of Rodney's, but considering their social skills, the two made an interesting match. Besides, the guy seemed harmless enough as long as you ignored his ego – something Catherine herself had enough of if he remembered correctly.

"I would if we didn't get interrupted all the time," she snorted.

"Elizabeth seems to like you."

"Yeah, she's OK..."

"Ronon has way better humor than Teal'c. OK, I wouldn't exactly call it humor, but..."

She giggled. "Teyla isn't bad, either. I just can't get myself to like her."

"And John seems to care very much about... his team," he said, observing her reaction.

"Probably, but we don't seem to get along."

There was too much indifference in her voice to sound believable.

"Come on; he's a nice guy." Daniel almost felt bad for pressing the matter, but he had to know if Vala’s suspicions were right.

“Yes. He is,” she agreed. “He’s also a reckless, stubborn, suicidal fool with a very real, very active _fan_ club.”

Catherine sat on the edge of the bed, her face troubled and sad. He didn’t know Col. Sheppard well enough to know if he was all that, but something about her description seemed oddly familiar.

“If it wasn’t for the fan club part, I’d think you’ve developed Narcissistic tendencies,” he said, finally realizing what it was.

She scoffed.

“I am _not_ a suicidal fool!” she protested weakly.

“Oh, Jack has a _slightly_ different story to tell. He’s still pissed, you know.”

She looked at him incredulously.

“Not you too, Daniel! I was scared out of my wits, but I didn’t have a choice! Was I supposed to leave Sasha behind?”

“Jack leaves no one behind!”

“And neither do I.”

“He was going to return for her!”

“She had her femoral artery severed. She was minutes away from bleeding to death. Last I checked, Jack didn’t have the training for that. It _had_ to be me!”

They had this argument many times before, when she was still with the SGC. He was tempted to push, but it wasn’t fair to make her relive the past. The fact that she hadn’t asked about Sasha since he had arrived in Atlantis made him wonder if she was feeling guilty for how things went down. He could assure her, her friend never blamed her for not saving her leg when her life was more important. But that wouldn’t stop Catherine for blaming herself over something she couldn’t control.

"So, you were going to leave without saying goodbye?"

The sudden shift in topic took him a bit by surprise.

"Not really. I was on my way to see you, actually." He picked up the box on the bed and offered it to her. "I was coming to give you this."

She took the box and opened it quickly, too curious to wait until she got back to her room. It was an mp3 player, tiny and red.

"I remember you used to listen to a lot of music and I figured you could do with one of these. I hope I got the playlist right," he said with a smile.

She jumped and hugged him again. "Thank you!" She kissed him on the cheek. "I'm sure it's OK!"

He hugged her back.

"Take care of yourself," he told her. "And let's hope it won't take us another year before we see each other."

She laughed. "Sure, being two galaxies away makes social visits so much easier!"

"At least I'll know where to find you, now."

For a moment, he thought he saw guilt in her eyes, but it faded as quickly as it came. “Well, if I find a final solution to this ever-mutating virus, I might even consider joining the SGC.”

"I'd like to see that happen," he said, aware that she had declined the position before and that she would be much happier working in a lab.

"This time, I'm serious."

"And I believe you."

With another hug, they said their goodbyes.

Daniel watched the door closing behind her and ran a hand through his hair.

He had known Catherine for over half of her life. She had been just 10 when her mother introduced her to him. At the time, she had been a precocious high schooler who mostly kept to herself – she was more comfortable around adults than teenagers, so she spent every moment out of school at her mother’s work. She had fallen in love with archeology, a surprising departure from her mostly scientific oriented education that her mother was understandably happy about.

She had also fallen in love with him throughout that project – her first awkward crush that he still felt terrible for having to discourage. He hated breaking hearts, and it took her almost eight years to get over it, but that awkwardness eventually eased into friendship.

He had been there for her when her mother was killed. He had been at her side when her father got trapped on the other side of a Stargate and never returned. He had been there for her when her grandparents died. He couldn’t be there for her when Daniel himself died, and that was a rift in their relationship that his Ascension and eventual return couldn’t mend.

His death had been the last drop that pushed her away from everybody, including himself. As if she was too afraid of getting close to people only to watch them die and leave her behind.

Now he had sensed the same fear in her when she talked about Sheppard.

Daniel couldn’t blame her. It took him nearly a decade to get over Sha’re’s death. He could only hope it wouldn’t take her that long.


End file.
